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New cinema chain

KOZHIKODE: Pyramid Saimira Theatres Ltd. (PSTL), a Chennai-based cinema chain, is set to enter the Kerala market in a big way.

“It is not just in cinema exhibition that we will invest in the State,” Mukesh R. Mehta, chief executive officer, Kerala, PSTL, told The Hindu recently.

“We will be involved in all the areas of the film industry. We will produce and distribute films as well.

There are also plans to build multiplexes,” he added.The PSTL’s Kerala operations will be launched on August 18 in Thiruvananthapuram. “We have begun the process of recruiting staff for our offices in Kerala,” Mr. Mehta said.

The PSTL will release a film for the first time in Kerala later this month — Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, the remake of the 1975 classic Sholay . It will be released on August 31.

“We will release our first Malayalam film in Kerala next month — Paradesi (the Mohanlal-starrer, directed by P.T. Kunhumohammed),” Mr. Mehta said. “We have also acquired the rights to distribute another Mohanlal film, Ali Bhai, outside Kerala. We are happy with the way the first Malayalam film we released, Hallo, has fared. We will continue to distribute more Malayalam films outside Kerala.”